Cryptocurrency OmiseGO and OMG Network is a project that removes currency barriers

What is OMG Network?

The idea behind the product is to integrate currency exchange and payment services. As a result, it is possible to transfer money without having to think about which currency the counterparty uses. An exchange will take place without the participation of banks, with reduced costs and speeded up transactions.

To understand how this works, let’s look at a simple example. Let’s say you are in Thailand and you want to dine at a restaurant, but you don’t have a dime of local money on your card or in your pocket. Usually, in this case, you need to either look for a local money exchange, or convert money through a bank. In both cases, the process takes time and you will lose 3-10% of your funds.

With OMG Network, everything is much easier. You dine at a restaurant, and when you need to pay, you use a special application to pay in dollars or any other currency. The app converts your dollars into local money and then transfers them to the restaurant’s account.

Anyone can make such an application. OMG Network has a White Label SDK for their development and integration into the system. Currency conversion takes place on the platform’s decentralised exchange without intermediaries. The process is faster and involves much lower fees.

Also, it will be possible to pay online. For example, transferring money to relatives or for online shopping.

Project History and Mission

Mastermind and Managing Director of OmiseGo (now OMG Network). Source

The main associate of the project is Vansa Chatikavanij. Between 2011-2016, she worked in Asian countries and saw how difficult it is to transfer money from bank accounts into the hands of construction workers. So, she started looking for a solution.

Bitcoin seemed to be a good alternative. Chatikavanij liked this technology so much that she even recommended it to the World Bank. However, at the time, Blockchain and Bitcoin were not popular, so the idea was rejected.

A few years later, Chatikavanij began assembling a team to develop a simple and affordable blockchain-based payment solution for East Asia. During her search, she tried to lure one of the Omise specialists. When Omise CEO, Jun Hasegawa, learnt about this, he called her and convinced her to start a joint project that would later be called OmiseGO.

Some time later, Chatikavanij and Hasegawa became interested in the Ethereum blockchain and decided to turn to Vitalik Buterin for help. He even had a hand in writing the white paper.

Vitalik Buterin with the OmiseGO team in Singapore. Source

In 2017, the OmiseGO ICO was launched, and the project raised USD $25 million. Almost immediately after the ICO, Hasegawa announced the launch date for the service – the end of the 2017. However, the development dragged on for three years, which is why investors criticised the OmiseGO management.

In 2019, it was reported that OmiseGO was bought by Thailand’s largest private company, Charoen Pokphand Group, for USD $150 million. This turned out to be untrue.

In the summer of 2020, the OMG beta version with a demo wallet was launched. On 30th April, 2020, in order to “clean up” its reputation, the company changed its name from Omise Holdings to SYNQA. Also, in June 2020, the project was rebranded from OmiseGO to OMG Network.

After the OMG launch, Tether Limited announced their stablecoin transition to a new sidechain because the OMG network supports “thousands of transactions per second and reduces fees by 66%.” The solution allowed to reduce load on Ethereum. According to ETHGasStation, before the integration, Tether was the main consumer of gas in the Ethereum network.

The biggest gas consumers in the Ethereum network as of 06/01/2020. Source

After the OMG Network launch, SYNQA received USD $80 million from SCB 10X. Among other investors were SPARX, Toyota Financial Services Corporation and others.

How to use OMG Network?

Money transfers. OMG Network is able to speed up and reduce the cost of traditional money transfers, especially if you need to perform currency conversion. At the same time, anyone can connect to the platform. For individuals, a special application and a peer-to-peer exchange is available, while for organisations, a White Label wallet (SDK) was designed.

Loyalty programs. The platform allows you to store loyalty points and use referral programs in one wallet. To do this, you need to tokenize points by creating their cryptocurrency equivalents on the OMG Network. Then they can be operated like ordinary tokens.

Mobile banking. OMG offers a free SDK and open source e-wallet template through which you can create your app with unique UX/UI design and functionality.

Gift cards. Since OMG Network is based on Ethereum, this allows the network to use smart contracts. It is quite easy to create gift cards that can be bought, sold and transferred like any cryptocurrency.

Stablecoins. OMG Network’s capabilities allow you to tokenize fiat currencies by creating their digital equivalents in the tokens form, and these tokens can then be converted to another fiat. Such conversions does not require the participation of banks or other cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ether, XRP).

OMG Network Components

Blockchain OMG Network. The network is based on the Ethereum blockchain and uses its own native OMG token, based on the ERC-20 standard. To increase bandwidth and reduce commissions, a modification of Plasma technology (analogue of Lightning Network) is used, which is called More Viable Plasma.

More Viable Plasma is a protocol that allows blockchain sidechains to be built on top of the main chain. MoreVP is a Plasma specification that combines multiple transactions into one block. Such a block is checked by validators and pays a commission as if it was one transaction.

OMG cryptocurrency token. It is required to protect against spam transactions, mediate currency conversions and reward validator nodes. The award is carried out using the Proof of Stake algorithm. The OMG Network uses the Proof-of-Authority algorithm. Therefore, it is not possible to mine OMG tokens through staking.

API and SDK for DApps development. Open source software is available for developing crypto wallets and integrating with the OMG network. FAQ and API instructions are available on the platform’s official website. The SDK can be downloaded from the GitHub repository.

Decentralised Exchange (DEX). There are scalable and secure exchanges where you can trade any form of digital assets. The system is compatible with all Ethereum tokens and Bitcoin-like coins.

OMG Price and Capitalisation

The internal token has the OMG ticker. It was first sold in July 2017 as part of the OmiseGo ICO. At the time, it cost USD $0.50. Initially, it was listed on exchanges with a price of USD $0.33 and in just a couple of months reached USD $12. By the end of the year, it was already worth USD $50. Later, the OMG rate gradually dropped to USD $1-1.3 amid the market collapse and due to the lack of good news about the working product development.

The recovery did not begin until the spring of 2020 when Omise Holdings was renamed SYNQA and it became clear that OMG Network would be launching soon. This raised the rate to USD $1.8, and after the network launch and the message from Tether, speculators managed to raise the price to USD $6.88.

Currently, as of September 2020, the cryptocurrency is ranked 40th with a capitalisation of USD $422 million and is sold at a price of USD $3 per token.

How to Buy OMG Coins?

You can buy OMG coins on the EXMO exchange. For this you need the following:

1. Go to the exchange using your account. It must be verified.

2. Enter “OMG” in the search field and select the required currency pair.

3. A chart of the selected currency pair will be displayed. Underneath, a window where you can create an OMG buy or sell order will be displayed. Select the type of order, specify the amount and rate, and then click “Buy” or “Sell”.

Trading signals for OmiseGO (OMG)

Summary

OMG Network (OmiseGO) is a cryptocurrency with great potential. The startup is managed by a popular payment solution provider in Asia, and the network concept was developed by Vitalik Buterin. At the same time, Tether (USDT) and Solana Network (USDt) have already announced the transition to OMG Network. All components for OMG becoming  successful are present.